< -TNT. 



COUNTERPOINT. 



AuKtria, it may be bought with numi of money not at all considerable ; 

 and io the other monarchical states of the continent, it is granted u a 

 mark of imperial or royal favour. 



The title of mrf, or, u it was often rendered in Latin, comet, com- 

 panion, U of very high antiquity in England, being well known to the 

 Saxon* under the name of raMonum, that is to say elder-man, and 

 also aUmtoa, becauae each of them had the government of a dintinct 

 A./r, or, ai it u now generally called, county. The sheriff, under his 

 latiniaed name, U called vice-comes, or viscount, which term [VISCOUNT] 

 u now one of the title* of rank in the Britiah peerage. The term 

 count Menu not to hare been used in England u a title of honour, 

 though the wive* of earla from a very early period have been addressed 

 by the title of countess. The king, in mentioning an earl in any writ 

 or i^-mTT 1 """" umially styles him " trusty and well-beloved cousin," a 

 peculiarity at least as ancient as the reign of Edward III. 



COUNT. (DECLARATION ; PLEADINU.] 



COUNTER- APPROACH is the term applied in fortification to any 

 small work thrown up by the besieged to look into or enfiUde any of 

 the besiegers' approaches. As its name indicates, it is generally made 

 by running out a trench from one of the outworks to some advantageous 

 rising ground in its vicinity, or to such a position that a battery formed 

 in it may enfilade some of the enemy's boyauz of communication 

 which have been directed clear of the main worts. By these means, an 

 active, vigorous, and energetic defender may prolong his defence con- 

 siderably, as each counter-approach entails much loss of time to a 

 besieger,' either in taking it or making fresh communications. In no 

 siege, perhaps, in history has this plan been followed out to BO great an 

 extent and with such great success as at Sebastopol : there a force as 

 large, and for a time much larger, than the besiegers, with an unlimited 

 supply of materiel, was enabled to push out counter-approaches as fast 

 as the allies could advance their trenches ; and thus the besiegers were 

 every now and then surprised and stopped by finding works rapidly 

 constructed and armed on their flank and almost in their rear, entailing 

 great loss of time while the works were extended to the flank and 

 fresh approaches made to take these counter-approaches. Thus was it 

 with the Mamelon, and with what were called the White Works, which 

 cost the French many thousands of lives to take. 



COUOTBR-ARCHKD KKVKTMENTS, or Rtrtlmentt en D<l,,ir..e. 

 The simple or plain revetment consists, as described under BASTION, 

 of a retaining wall of masonry, strengthened at intervals by counter- 

 forts, supporting the earth of the rampart which rests against it ; in 

 the counter-arched revetment the mass of earth does not, however, 

 rest against the main wall, which u therefore made for the escarp only 

 5 feet, and counterscarp only 3 feet, thick ; and the counter-forts, 5 feet 

 thick and 10 feet from centre to centre, extend about 8 feet back, and 

 rising about 7 feet above the foot of the revetment, are then covered 

 and connected by arches turned from one to the other, which support 

 the earth of the parapet and thereby form a bomb-proof cover, com- 

 munication being obtained along the whole extent by openings cut in 

 the piers. With loopholes cut in the front wall, counter-arched revet- 

 ments are further useful in affording a defence for the ditch by a low 

 musketry fire. The earth of the rampart is retained either by arches 

 turned from end to end of the counterforts with their concavity to the 

 front wall, or by a flat wall connecting the piers, or without anything 

 at all by the earth being allowed to assume its natural slope. Hence a 

 further advantage of the counter-arched revetment is, that the besieger, 

 after breaching the front wall, must break through these counter- 

 arches by breaching or mining the piers before he can make a practi- 

 cable breach. To make the destruction of the piers more difficult, and 

 to hinder the earth falling to a slope, even when the outer revetment 

 is breached, the counterforts are connected in portions of Carnot's 

 system by two walls 1 foot 6 inches thick placed at 11 and 18 feet from 

 the back of the escarp, and arched convex towards the rear. The com- 

 partments formed by this network of walls are then filled with earth. 

 [REVCTMEST.] 



COUNTERFORT, an addition to the thickness of a quay or of an 

 abutment wall, made for the purpose of increasing the dynamical 

 resistance of the latter; and a cuuntcrfort differs from a buttrcM in this 

 respect, that the former is placed on the inside of the wall, where it is 

 hidden by the earthwork or other backing; whereas the latter is 

 apparent, and is often made to form part of the architectural character 

 of a building. The philosophical principles to be observed with either 

 of these portions of a building are however the same, and they may be 

 stated to be, that they should distribute the effort over the greatest 

 possible area, and also as far as possible decompose its action, in such a 

 manner as to bring it ultimately upon the base of the additional struc- 

 tures, which can more easily be rendered perfect than the base of the 

 whole wall. Counterforts, when used to strengthen the abutments of 

 a bridge, must present a moment of dynamical resistance which shall 

 be more than sufficient to compensate for the deficiencies of the abut- 

 ment itself; and this may be ascertained by supposing that the mass of 

 the counterfort is applied hi a thin sheet along the inner side of the wall, 

 or, in other words, that the mass of the wall is increased by the whole 

 mass of the counterfort. But evidently this is an unfavourable, whilst 

 it is a safe mode of calculation ; for it leaves entirely out of account 

 the influence of the leverage of the projection. When counterforts 

 are applied to the inner faces of quay walls they act by splitting up 

 into portions, as it were the effort of the earthwork behind them 



nearly as much as they do by increasing the dynamical rftsisUncr of 

 the walls themselves. Great precautions must be adopted in building 

 such counterforts to ensure the sound binding together of the masonry 

 of the respective parts of the structure. 



COUNT):)! I'" 'UTS. in military architecture, are buttresses of 1 u. U 

 or stone built against the revetment walls, l>y which the outward 

 pressure of the rampart, or of the natural ground on the opposite aide 

 of the ditch, is resisted. The rectangular portions at s and u.fy. 3, 

 BASTION, are counter-forU so situated. They are intended to increase 

 the strength of such walls, and are formed between them and the earth 

 which the walls retain. Their depth U usually equal to the mean thick- 

 ness of the revetment, and they are placed at intervals of about 18 feet 

 from each other, along the walls. They are sometimes connected 

 together by counter-arches. [REVETMENT.] 



COUNTER-GUARDS are outworks occasionally constructed on the 

 exterior of the bastions or ravelins of a fortress in order to retard the 

 formation of a breach in either of those works. 



The counter-guard is in general merely a line of rampart surmounted 

 by a parapet, and broken in direction so as to form two laces parallel 

 to those of the work which it covers ; it has less relief than the interior 

 work, in order that the fire from the latter may paw over it, and when 

 taken may not afford the enemy in any lodgment which he may form 

 in it the power of seeing into the main works. Its breadth in rear of 

 the parapet should not exceed about 18 feet, that, while there may bo 

 room for the defenders, the enemy may not have sufficient space fur tl- 

 establishment of a battery on its templet* ; and consequently, that ho 

 may not be able to breach the bastion or ravelin till, by mining or 

 otherwise, he has detroyed the counter-guard. 



When counter-guards are constructed in front both of a bastion and 

 of the collateral ravelin, the interval between their extremities un:.\ ! I 

 ably leaves a face of one of these works exposed ; and, as a breach in 

 the former would be more fatal to the defenders than one in tin- 

 work, the lengths of the counter-guards must be determined by the 

 condition that the exposed face be that of the ravelin. 



What are called counter-guards in the second and third systems of 

 Vauban are, properly, bastions detached from the line of rampart called 

 the enceinte. [See the work marked v, in fig. 8, BASTION.] 



Counter-guards always, however, have the disadvantage, when taken, 

 of providing a safe large retired place iFarmet in their ditches, where the 

 attacking officer may collect his assaulting column close to the breach. 



COrNTKISM 1 N'K. [MINES, MILITAKT.] 



COUNTERPART. [DEED.] 



COUNTKHI'OIXT, in music (conlrapHnctum), is a term now syn- 

 onymous with harmony [HARMONY], and nearly so with compuitinii ; 

 but the latter implies more of invention, of imagination, partiiMibrly 

 as relates to melody, than counterpoint imports. Counterpoint in ii \ 

 literal and strict sense signifies point ayaiitit [mint. \\\ the infancy 

 of harmony, musical notes or signs were simple points, or dots, and in 

 compositions in two or more parts were placed on staves, .-. 

 against, each other. Subsequently, the term was applied to tin 

 added to a given melody, such melody taking the name of mutiu- 

 Jirmta, canto-fcrmo, or plain-song. [PtAiu-SoNO.] Viewing it in this 

 sense, the Padre Martini wrote his very elaborate and justly-celebrated 

 ' Saggio di Contrappunto sopra il Conto-Fermo' (1774), a work to 

 which we refer every student who wishes to enter deeply into the 

 subject. But Zarlino, in his ' Institutione Harmoniche' (1589), ranks 

 counterpoint as the principal part (" toygttto principale ") in airs, &c., 

 written in two parts. And many writers consider the word as apply- 

 ing generally to composition in parts, among whom are the learned 

 Dr. Pepusch, the acute Spanish Jesuit Eximeno, the industrious Dr. 

 Lichtenthal, &c. ; so unstable is musical language, so ill defined are 

 musical terms t 



Counterpoint is divided into Simple, Florid, or Figurate, and / 

 Simple counterpoint is a composition in two or more port*, tin 

 of each part being equal in value to those of the corresp<>ii<lniL 

 or part*, ami concords. .Miami Fux, Kapellmeister to the emprrnr 

 Charles VI., in his 'Gradus ad Paruassuin ' (1725), furnishes us with 

 the following examples of this species, calling one part canttujir,, 

 the canto ferma, the other miitm/niiii-tum, or counterpoint, and taking 

 each in turn as the melody. We have here substituted the trcH. lr 

 the c clefs. 



OxmterpoiKt. 



